Banning texting
while driving, providing adequate home and community-based long-term care
services and closing the loophole that allows online retailers to have an
unfair advantage in their competition against bricks-and-mortar stores are
three of the top legislative priorities for Florida voters age 50 and over,
regardless of party affiliation, according to a new AARP survey.

The most
“eye-popping” figure: Ninety-three percent of older voters want to prohibit
texting while driving, AARP Florida State Director Jeff Johnson said at a press
conference with reporters on Monday. The AARP survey of 880 voters 50 and over
found that “everyone’s in agreement,” on this issue.

The
Legislature will again be considering efforts to ban texting while driving. A
measure on the ban (SB 52) is scheduled for discussion at the Senate
Transportation Committee meeting on Wednesday.

“We hopeful
that as our elected officials see the results of this survey, and as I’m sure
they’ve been hearing from their constituents, they think about ways that they
can work together on these issues rather than letting things resolve into
partisan bickering,” Johnson said.

Florida voters age 50 and over made up 40
percent of the electorate in 2012, and as a group, 70 percent of them turn out
in every election, AARP figures show.

The top priority of
the AARP this legislative session will be expanding Medicaid under the federal
Affordable Care Act, which would provide eligibility to those persons with
incomes up to 133 percent of the federal povery level.

AARP’s
2.8 million members in Florida
are concerned about enforcing the quality of care in long-term care facilities
and providing community-based care for people who want to stay at home, “which
is what they prefer in most cases anyway,” Johnson said. Nearly half of the
survey’s respondents said it was “very or somewhat likely” that someone in
their family would need some type of long-term care in the next five years.

In
other results, sixty percent of voters also oppose current laws allowing
utility companies to charge consumers in advance for nuclear-powered plants in
advance even though they may never be built.

In the first place road accidents are the top one cause of death in this country and I don’t know if people didn’t notice that. Everyone should be responsible drivers and I believe we had enough knowledge on what we are doing might lead to an accident… So be responsible!